About ToxicTrailers.com

ToxicTrailers.com was launched after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when the government spent more than $2 billion on FEMA trailers with high levels of formaldehyde that sickened thousands of people. The FEMA trailer tragedy exposed what is a widespread problem in RVs, mobile homes, modular buildings and even conventional buildings that use pressed wood products. Unfortunately, as we approach the tenth anniversary of Katrina, formaldehyde regulations are not being enforced in the U.S., and people's health is at risk. If you are having burning eyes, congestion, sore throat, coughing, breathing difficulties, frequent sinus infections or rashes, and difficulties concentrating, you may have a formaldehyde problem. For questions or to share your story, write 4becky@cox.net.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Iowa FEMA trailers making people sick

KGAN television in Cedar Rapids Iowa has done some great investigative reporting testing 20 FEMA housing units (park models and mobile homes) and reporting on people who have been getting sick. How sad that yet another time disaster victims have placed in unsafe housing and then FEMA has denied the problem and blamed it on the people int he trailers. (See the link to the AP article under the news section on the left of this page.)

Check out this website for more info:

http://www.kgan.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kgan_vid_1512.shtml

It's not just Linn County with formaldehyde fears. We've been getting plenty of emails from concerned flood victims in other parts of Eastern Iowa. CBS 2’s Robert Price has more.

"Just barely breathing...not moving around enough air to even be able to talk...the panic that goes along with it."

This is how Paul Schiel describes his failing health... Coughing, trouble breathing, migraines... All problems he and his wife Kathy never had before moving into a FEMA trailer.

"I never had sore throat, itchy eyes before...never My wife gets terrible migraines so bad she can't sleep. I want outta here is what I want," said Schiel.

Paul has emphysema....his wife has had cancer twice...they're not in great health...but they can feel it getting worse.

"I've had breathing problems occasionally...but not this severe. I probably should have been in the hospital."

Paul has been on oxygen for six years now, but for the most part he says his breathing has been under control...that is, until he moved into his FEMA trailer. His health is so poor now that for a while he couldn't even walk ten feet from his couch to the bathroom.

"Just sitting right here for about a week not being able to move, not being able to talk because the breathing was so bad...I think it was formaldehyde."

Paul and his wife haven't called FEMA yet...and while they want to see something done, they have mixed feelings.

"I'd like to see them retest, but I don't know what good it'd do...where are they going to put ya? I wouldn't want to move again."

Warning: RVS and mobile homes may be hazardous to your health!!

Imagine that you have just lost your home in a natural disaster, and are now waiting to get a FEMA trailer for temporary housing. The fact is, you and your family might be better off in a tent or living with friends and relatives, even if it is crowded.

After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA purchased about 102,000 travel trailers at a cost of $2.6 billion to house the victims of the nation’s largest natural disaster. It turns out that the vast majority of these trailers have excessive levels of formaldehyde. See the results of testing done by the CDC that were announced Feb. 29, 2008 at the website http://cdc.gov/nceh/ehhe/trailerstudy/ or just Google CDC formaldehyde FEMA study. This website also has links to information for residents and health care practitioners.

From the very beginning people who received FEMA trailers after Katrina reported experiencing problems such as irritated eyes, breathing problems, bloody noses, headaches, nausea, frequent respiratory infections and skin rashes. We know one family that moved from the FEMA trailer into a storage shed on their property because their daughter threw up every time she spent any time in the trailer. Another man sleeping in his driveway next to his trailer said, “My FEMA trailer is killing me!” One couple experienced such heavy chest congestion combined with nose bleeds that they abandoned their FEMA trailer to sleep in their truck.

The CDC testing confirmed three earlier rounds of testing done by Sierra Club in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama in 2006 and 2007 with test kits from Advanced Chemical Sensors. Out of 69 tests, 61 were over 0.1 ppm which represents 88 percent of the trailers tested. The tests used 0.1 ppm as the concentration above which health impacts are expected. However, much lower levels are recommended for long-term exposure. The Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) Minimal Risk Levels are 0.04 ppm for 1-14 days, 0.03 for 14-364 days and 0.008 ppm for 365 or more days exposure. The lowest of the 69 Sierra Club tests was 0.04. The highest test was 0.39.

As you will see by reading the blogs on this page, the formaldehyde problem is not confined to just RVs and mobile homes purchased by FEMA. Manufacturers state that they didn't do anything differently for RVs and mobile homes sold to FEMA than those sold to the general public. People across the country are reporting formaldehyde problems in not just campers and manufactured housing, but regular homes, offices, churches and schools.

For an in-depth look at this issue including how FEMA and the ATSDR tried to coverup the problem rather than respond to a major public health disaster, see the hearing transcript from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1413.